MY PARENTS ARE DEAD! -smack-
by KageDanza
Summary: The team watches a stupid TV show and the subject of hero names comes up. When Robin's turns out to be the only one that can't be automatically explained, what do they learn about their youngest member? Rated K because ROBIN'S PARENTS ARE DEAD! Humor-ish because stupid jokes, and Drama because orphans. No blood, no identity-reveal. And no smacking, because hitting is bad, kids. :P


**I know this has been done before, but I really liked the idea of it and felt like trying out the concept for myself. Basically, the team is talking about how they got their hero names. I thought it was pretty cool, and a great opportunity for all sorts of things.**

**Disclaimer(heavy on the dis): Nope. Still don't own DC.**

On one of the few slow days the Justice League's secret undercover team of sideki- erm, partners got, Artemis, Superboy, Aqualad, Miss Martian, Kid Flash, and Robin were hanging out in the cave doing their own things. Robin was doing something on his laptop, Artemis was sharpening her arrows and arguing with Kid Flash about... actually, they were pretty much just insulting each other now. Aqualad was half-watching a TV show with Miss Martian and Superboy. It was about some secret agent with a weird code name. Blue Fox or something like that. He had a partner called Alien Angel, and they were trying to prevent World War III or whatever.

Kid Flash suddenly snorted when the main character radioed in to his partner. "Blue Fox to Alien Angel," the secret agent said.

"Secret agent code names are even weirder than superhero names," he commented, still smirking at the stupid line.

"Maybe Blue Fox chose his name for a reason," Miss Martian said. "Hello, Megan! He probably has a girlfriend who really likes foxes!" Robin laughe at the random explanation.

"Probably not, but it's a good point," the Boy Wonder said. "We all chose our names for a reason, why couldn't he?"

They all thought about that, and chimed in with their own ridiculous backstories for the character.

"Maybe his friend died and they really liked foxes, and his favorite color is blue!"

"Maybe he got the name from a brand that he saw on something when he was choosing his name."

"Maybe his dog is named Foxy and it has a blue collar."

"Maybe when he was training to be a secret agent he spray painted a fox blue and put it in his commander's room or something!"

"Maybe Alien Angel was thinking of you when he chose his name, green cheeks."

"Shut up, Baywatch."

"OW!"

After a while, they ran out of dumb (borderline idiotic) explanations. The show was long over, and they were sitting in a somewhat comfortable silence.

"Speaking of which, why Artemis?" Wally suddenly asked said heroine.

"I don't know, it just fit. You know, Greek goddess of archery?" she shrugged. "But what about Kid Flash? Couldn't you come up with something a little more original?"

"I thought it would be easy to remember. And I don't exactly want to be called Mercury or Hermes, Miss Goddess of the Hunt," Wally retorted.

"Whatever, Baywatch," she rolled her eyes.

"Besides, Aqualad and Superboy don't have original names either," he pointed out. "And even M'gann's name is a stretch."

"That's true," Artemis consented, "But that leaves Robin. I'm pretty sure birds have nothing to do with bats..."

By this time they'd all been half-listening, amused, to their conversation. But at the mention of Robin, they all perked up somewhat. It looked like there might actually be something interesting to listen to today.

"No kidding. You never did tell me why you chose Robin, Rob." Wally looked over at the Boy Wonder. Their resident hacker shrugged.

"It's not really that interesting," he said.

"Come on, Robin," Artemis said. "We're all so bored I'm pretty sure ANYTHING would sound interesting right now."

"It was just my mother's favorite animal," he shrugged. "Nothing special." That was a lie. It was VERY special. It was his way of keeping her memory alive. But there was no way he was going to tell them that. They had no idea he even lived with Batman. He had a feeling they never even thought of what his relation to Batman might be.

"Well that was anticlimactic," Artemis sighed. "Why would you choose your mom's favorite animal as your hero name, anyway?"

"Because," Robin said, "It's important to me." Wally sent him a sympathetic look, like, 'Sorry, they're just going to keep asking now.'

"Why would that be important to you?" Superboy asked. He wasn't too terribly acquainted with the things that people found important, but he was pretty sure that wasn't one of them.

"Fine. Do you really want to know?" Robin asked them. They exchanged looks and nodded (except for Wally, who already knew. Nobody paid attention to him, though). How bad could it be?

Robin sighed and adjusted his sunglasses anxiously. He was SO not feeling the aster. "It's important to me because my mom and dad... aren't exactly around anymore. They haven't been for years. And their... passing was the only reason I became Batman's partner. The only reason I had the opportunity, and the only reason I had the motivation."

They all sat in a stunned sort of silence, mulling the information over. All of them had their suspicions, but were afraid to ask how his parents' deaths could motivate him to be a crime fighter.

"Wait... I thought BATMAN was your dad." Superboy said.

And for whatever reason, they all laughed and laughed, and Robin was laughing the hardest. Maybe someone had thought about the Dynamic Duo's relationship after all.

**Okay, that turned out all right, I guess. I literally had NO plans for this whatsoever. I tried not to make the rest of the team's reactions really dramatic, because seriously, they're heroes. Aqualad and Artemis both have awful, villainous fathers, Miss Martian lived a pretty darn lonely childhood, Kid Flash knew already, Superboy has NO PARENTS and Superman is a Grayson-head (see what I did there? That's comedy gold). And also, even when you're NOT in the hero business you're not going to automatically cry just because someone's parents are dead. It just sucks, it's not the worst thing in the universe. Besides, Robin isn't going to tell them his life story if they ask why his name is Robin. They don't know that he has no living family members. Just that his parents are dead.**

**Anyway, I'm sorry the stupid Blue Fox explanations were... stupid. Wow. That redundant sentence is redundant... But I figure, they're bored out of their MINDS. They aren't going to be the sharpest knives in the electrical outlet. (Most favorite saying EVER!)**

**So... Yeah. Please review! Seriously. Pretty, pretty, please with a de-aged Robin on top?**


End file.
